This will serve as the first full season with new executive director, Jeremy Ganter
By RODRIGO VILLEGAS — campus@theaggie.org
The Mondavi Center recently announced its 2024-2025 season of performances, featuring a diverse lineup of both enduring favorites and the next generation of performers. This 23rd season will also mark the first full season under Executive Director Jeremy Ganter.
Ganter originally intended to be a professional musician; however, his plans changed during his undergraduate program when he realized he did not enjoy practicing guitar for six or more hours a day. He later discovered his passion for music history — once he started working in the performing arts industry, he realized how effective he was in a backstage management role than onstage.
He started his career at the Mondavi Center as the executive assistant to the executive director in 2001. During his early career, he experienced multiple promotions until he assumed the role of director of programming and associate executive director in 2007, eventually becoming the executive director in 2023.
“What really prepared me for the job was working with our former executive director, Don Roth, for 17 years, who was a mentor to me,” Ganter said. “A lot of what prepared me to lead the organization, I learned from him.”
As the new executive director, Ganter has three main goals for the Mondavi Center: first, establishing deeper connections with university departments to expand the venue’s presence on campus; second, seeding the ground for the next generation of young artists to sustain the Mondavi Center for the next couple of decades and third, creating a diverse lineup that includes more Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) and Indigenous performances, as well as generally representing the diverse bodies that make up campus.
“I was able to address all of those goals with the new season,” Ganter said. “The deeper representation piece and the next generation piece are visible already in the programming. What isn’t visible yet is the deeper connections with campus departments, but by the time we start the season in September [2024], we’ll be able to publicly announce a bunch of partnerships.”
Among the 2024-2025 season lineup are favorites such as Joshua Bell, San Francisco Symphony and Terence Blanchard, as well as next-generation artists like Bruce Liu, Sean Mason and Théotime Langlois de Swarte with Les Arts Florissants. The lineup also includes groups like Cloud Gate Dance Theatre of Taiwan and Julia Keefe Indigenous Big Band to increase AAPI and indigenous representation.
Ganter expressed excitement for this season launch due to the mix of familiar and new artists for their audience. The lineup has received a positive response so far and further added to his excitement, according to Ganter.
“The response to our season launches [is] generally positive, but this one has been particularly positive,” Ganter said. “Ticket sales are well beyond what they were at this point last year.”
He further expressed his excitement about the audience’s renewed energy for live performances, which he’s witnessed during the current 2023-2024 season. Ganter considers this current season as the first “truly post-pandemic” one, because the fear of going out has nearly faded, and the Mondavi Center has experienced full houses again during performances.
“It was plausible that live performances could’ve been completely damaged by the pandemic,” Ganter said. “It was plausible that people would not come back and that we would not have enough numbers to sustain an organization like the Mondavi Center. However, this 2023-2024 season proved the power of live performance.”
Written by: Rodrigo Villegas — campus@theaggie.org
